Chapter X

When he awoke, the world was still black, but he had the sensation of movement. He seemed to be travelling forwards, rocking back and forth as he lay on his stomach; but that was not all. It was quite warm, but he could not feel the sun beat down upon his skin – the heat was slightly clammy, making the air quite stifling. He focused on the noise and the vibration and, through his drug-induced haze, he realised he was in a vehicle of some sort. Then he made the connection: if he was in a vehicle, he was being taken somewhere.

He wriggled as he tried to move his hands, but there was a great deal of sharp resistance on both of his wrists: cuffs. He remembered something: didn’t Koopas–

A pothole made him jump and hit his head on the very low roof of his prison. Annoyed that he couldn’t even bring his hands up to rub the ache, he grimaced and focused on ignoring it, taking in the smells around him instead. His powerful Yoshian nose drew in the hot air deeply. The reason for the heat became obvious: Ark was lying down beside him, but he still appeared to be knocked out. Mixed in with his scent was that of old carpet, which gave away even more smells, namely the odd spiciness of Fire Flowers. Perhaps he was being smuggled somewhere? Was he being kidnapped by some family? Had the Gr’tokoru found them?

“He…hmfff?” he called out, realising that he had been gagged. That put a real crimp in everything.

So, he was gagged, and as the skin around his eyes registered, he was also blindfolded. Obviously, his abductors did not want him to cry out for help, nor to see where he was. Maybe they don’t want me to be heard, he thought. If I am being smuggled, then they would not want Koopas hearing me call out.

He took another deep breath through his nose and listened, sensing that the source of his not-so-fresh air was coming from before his snout, probably from the driver’s cabin. However, partly thanks to the gag in his mouth, the smell of some sort of grease was all that he detected, probably some sort of masking agent.

If he had been cuffed, and his captors were deliberately hiding their scent from him, then maybe they–

Another pothole jarred the thought out of his head. He winced and cursed through the fabric, receiving Ark’s stirring groan as his answer. It was followed by a sharp exhalation as he fell asleep once more. Lich vaguely remembered pulling the dart out of his skin; Ark probably had not, so its effects were obviously more severe. With a sigh, he guessed that he was probably in the same situation as him, so no assistance would be found there.

His skin prickled, telling him he was sweating, though not entirely from the heat. Mentally assuring himself that he would be able to sort this all out, he drew deep breaths and worked on calming down and clearing his mind.

Right, he declared.

They could take away his sight, his smell, his mobility and his dexterity, but they could not take away his sensing abilities. His eyes already shut, he reached out with his mind, probing the Mana Field, forming an inner sight of the world around him in a monochrome of a flat sheet of transparent grey gel, dotted with mounds and troughs that would tell him what living or magical things were around him.

Straightaway he probed his immediate right and found the tall rise his Boomerang made to his great relief. Perhaps his kidnappers had discovered its rather large spark and decided to leave it with him; perhaps it explained his handcuffs. He probed to his left, immediately finding Ark and his tall rise as well, much to his expectation. However, with him in such close proximity, along with his Boomerang, it would be difficult to sense anything else around them. He resorted to focusing his mind like a laser sight, ignoring Ark and his Boomerang as he pinpointed his sensing.

He pushed through Ark’s presence and discovered the dark energies of the Spear on his other side; it had probably been given the same treatment. Since their captors would have to use Ark’s hand to move it, Lich theorised that Ark’s dosage of the toxin was higher so to keep him docile and to stop him from using it against them. Lich then turned his attention to his abductors, now having to ignore the Spear as well. It was likely that since he was going forward, they would be ahead of him, if not above him or both. He focused there and analysed the presences the two of them made, sensing its resonance. It was something he had been detecting quite frequently and recently. They were Koopas.

He stopped sensing the Field, returning his vision to the blackness. Something about the manner of the situation did not seem right at all, something that he could not pinpoint. However, he somehow knew that this was not–

His attention was caught by the vehicle slowing, its engine slowing to a hum, making an unpleasant vibration as they stopped. He could hear voices coming through the air supply, but the engine’s idling made it very hard to catch what they were saying, but he knew from the harsh kh’s that it was Koopan.

Lich began to sense again around him, but the idling ceased as the engine picked up once more. Probing, he found quite a number of Koopan Presences, so they had entered some form of civilisation; judging by their number, the heat of the day was subsiding, drawing them out, so mid-afternoon had passed.

He stopped sensing again and turned to keeping his mind on inertia, trying to work out where they were going in the town in case they needed to escape: a fairly long straight followed by a left, a right that came fairly soon, a curve to the left up a hill followed by a quick left, then a quick right. The engine slowed, idled, then resumed as he started to creep forward slowly, followed by a turn to the right, then another short creep forward, then the engine was switched off. They had arrived.

Lich clenched his fists as he heard the passenger and driver doors open, the rubbing of fabric and the creak of springs as weight was relieved from the seats. A roller door roared shut behind him somewhere. He sensed two more Koopas now, joining their abductors at the front of the vehicle; by where they were placed, they seemed to be discussing something, but far too quietly for him to hear.

He began to work on his next course of action, deciding between struggling for a chance to escape and submitting. The latter would probably be the easier option, but the former was still a possibility: he had his sensing abilities, and the Boomerang still had its self-defence mechanism charged. All he had to do would be to lunge to his right at any nearby Koopa. Sadly, yet fortunately, reality stepped in as he realised he would not be able to remove any of his binds without their help.

The two new Presences moved around to the sides of the vehicle, but much to Lich’s surprise, they got in and shut the doors. Then there was the flick of a plastic switch, followed by the faint pressings of some buttons. And then, with a quiet hum, they began to move downwards.

Obviously his captors wished to keep their business clandestine. But who were they?

About forty seconds passed before the hum stopped and the engine turned on again as they began to creep forward once more. There was a left turn, with another left soon afterwards as they came to another complete stop. The doors opened and shut as talking commenced in Koopan, but he did not have time to pay attention to what was said. With the sliding of metal behind him, a cool draught slipped into his hot prison.

“The von Kippos,” a Koopa spoke.

Lich’s heart sank. They knew who they were, and from a quick sensing of the area, there seemed to be about ten of them.

“Get them out,” another Koopa commanded. “Him first.”

Pairs of boots approached.

“Mister Ark, are you awake?” a voice asked, in the distinctive tones Lich heard at the local convenience store back home in the Archipelago: a Koopa speaking Yoshian.

“Heeff dot,” Lich muttered.

“Mister Dyluck appears to be awake, sir, but no answer from Mister Ark,” the Koopa reported.

“He’s probably still out,” the superior judged. “Take him to the med-holding cells, constant watch.”

“Stretcher!” another voice called.

“Separate that spear from him when you get there. Watch out for it: make sure you use his arm to move it,” the superior ordered.

He could hear chelonian hands clapping onto Ark’s shins and gripping them.

“One-two-three…” a Koopa counted.

Ark’s sleeping body was dragged out beside him with a heave. He emitted another stirring groan.

“He’s waking up, sir!” another Koopa reported.

“Take him to med-holding still,” the commander ordered.

There was a sudden electrical zap, a yelp and the cocking of guns as they were aimed. Lich’s heart moved into his throat. If they fired at him, there was no way he could dodge.

“I told you to watch out for that spear!” the superior growled. “Lower your weapons!”

Lich breathed out as the guns clicked as they were disengaged. The Spear scraped out beside him, and soon a number of boots were trotting away, with Ark’s disoriented groans fading into the distance.

He could hear a few slow, possibly measured footsteps move around to a more central location behind him: this had to be the commander, and by the way he walked, he was going to speak.

“Mister von Kippo, we do not wish to fight you,” he spoke in Yoshian, with more control over its tonality than the other Koopa; his expression had the character of gentle sincerity. “We do not wish to harm you in any way and we will see that this does not happen so long as you co-operate with us and do not seek to harm us. We will keep our end of the bargain if you keep yours. If you agree to this, please tap your heels together.”

Lich sighed. He knew he had no other choice at the moment: his cuffed hands stopped him from using the Boomerang or casting his attacking spells and the gag prevented his tongue from being used as a weapon. He tapped them together in defeat.

“Very well. Thank you, Mister von Kippo. We know you have good common sense. Now, we will now extract you from the truck – we have to grab your legs and pull you out. When you are ready, please tap your heels together.”

The Yoshi was puzzled: they were being quite civil. He tapped them together again, more out of curiosity than submitting defeat.

Eight Koopan hands were clasped around his legs: four turtles. He gritted his teeth as he was dragged out, and his shins were assisted in lowering to the ground: cold cement. As the rest of his body was dragged out and he fell into a kneeling position, he could hear a ventilation fan pump air into the room: from its echoes it was long with a low ceiling. The smell of fuel permeated the air: it was probably some sort of garage.

“Can you stand, Mister von Kippo?” the superior asked.

Lich rocked forward. His blindfold prevented him from seeing the back of the truck.

“Mmmf!” he cried out as his head hit it unexpectedly.

Hands gripped around his forearms and started to pull him up, causing his legs to flail around. The hands slipped to his lower arms as he gained his balance on weak legs. His head spinning from the impact, he took a few shaky steps back, the hands helping to steady him upright.

There seemed to be a few moments given for thought, before the commander spoke in Koopan, “If you move him at the usual pace, he should be alright.” He then cleared his throat. “Mister von Kippo,” he moved into Yoshian, “a meeting has been arranged for you. We will direct you there. Please do not attempt to remove your blindfold or gag as we walk.”

Hands wrapped around the crooks of his arms.

“Proceed,” he ordered. The hands turned him to his left, pulled at him, and then he began to walk.

Lich wondered where they were going. Someone wanted to see him since he had talked about a meeting. As they made a left out of the presumed garage, he tried to guess who these Koopas were. The commander had made the mention of a truck – someone who had trucks was Gr’tokoru Transportation. But how would the Gr’tokoru know he was here?

They turned right, and judging by the echoes, this was a tiled hallway. Lich tried to find the chinks in his armour. He had specifically made it clear to Ark and kept reminding himself not to mention the Gr’tokoru unless he was talking to someone he could trust, and he knew he could trust Karkok from his previous visit to the Koopa Kingdom. Karkok would not have told anyone about the Gr’tokoru. Maybe someone could have overheard their conversation? No, the G’rekt would have marched straight in afterwards. As it was, there was quite a considerable delay, enough that afternoon had almost become midnight. Where else had he mentioned them? There was his sarcastic comment to Ark, but surely no-one was around, not even recording equipment that close to the border crossing, and as it was, it would be controlled by the KBT.

The hallway opened up and they drew to a stop. There was a plastic button being pressed, followed by the hum of a motor: a lift. He remembered part of the conversation with Karkok: he had answered his question about family’s alliances as “some”. Had the KBT heard this and decided to get rid of them this way, washing their hands of his blood?

The lift doors opened and he was walked in and turned around. The doors shut. He concentrated on the lift movement and counted: it was of a fairly normal speed and stopped after thirteen seconds. The doors opened and he was led down another tiled corridor, the walls giving off the soft echo of wood.

He frowned, then began to chuckle quietly as he began to sense around him: Koopas, mainly standing still, with some darting back and forth. He was passing a few in this corridor, but they did not seem to stop and turn to him has he passed. This had to be a normal occurrence in this place. Was he captive of the KBT?

He bit his lip. There was only one way to find out where he was, and that was to arrive at his destination. He turned a corner and paused as he heard a door swing open gently, then moved again onto carpet.

A plastic button was pressed to his left. “Mister von Kippo is here to see you,” a female Koopa spoke.

Obviously this person had to be someone important to afford the luxury of carpet in what had to be their office. A door unlocked and he paused again as its handle was pushed down and then pulled upon. He was slipped almost sideways through the opening as the door clicked shut behind him. Footsteps on the carpet told him that the Koopas were lining up on either side of him.

“Bend over,” a Koopa whispered to him.

He did so and hands picked at the tight knots on the blindfold and the gag. Light flooded his eyes as they were pulled away – unable to rub them, he blinked a number of times as a maroon-coloured carpet came into view. There was a wooden desk at the top of his vision. He raised himself up straight once more to see the occupant standing behind the desk.

“Cekyura T., KIA, Head of Talk’gu Branch,” the Mushroom introduced himself.